The Naming of Things.

PAYPAL IS THE WORST COMPANY IN THE WORLD

2010-08-31T15:33:00.000+10:00

There you have it.

Nice Work, Glenn Beck...

2009-04-05T11:13:00.002+10:00

Hey Glenn Beck!!

All that hard work is really coming together. Well done!!

2009-01-09T14:55:00.000+11:00

Oh My Lord!!

2008-11-21T19:52:00.003+11:00

Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho: "I’m en route from downtown Anchorage, to the Ted Stevens International Airport. And as we round the curb and pull up to exit the cab, I look up, and there is your name. And I said, ‘Oh, Ted’s got an airport, that’s neat.’ And the cab driver says, ‘Do you know Uncle Ted?’ I said ‘Yes, I do. I work for him in the United States Senate.’ He says, ‘You do?’ I said, ‘Sure do.’ He said ‘Give him my best when you get back to Washington. Because as an Alaskan, I know of no other person who has done more for my state than Uncle Ted.’ Well, Ted Stevens now knows why I call him Uncle Ted more often than not."

Larry, you ol' kidder, he's known since that layover in Chicago in '98.

Clusterf...

2008-09-21T18:20:00.000+10:00

2008-06-28T17:40:00.000+10:00

2008-06-28T17:39:00.000+10:00

2008-06-28T17:38:00.002+10:00

2008-06-28T17:38:00.001+10:00

2008-06-28T17:36:00.000+10:00

2008-03-20T14:19:00.000+11:00

Tamsyn, Tamsyn, Tamsyn, Oi, Oi, Oi....

2008-03-10T14:14:00.003+11:00

Tamsyn wins gold in Valencia

Good girl, well done....

Who da man?

2008-01-04T12:49:00.000+11:00

I believe this means I can take a whole class worth of the little bastards. wo0t!!!1!11!1!

USA - a Maoist regime????

2007-12-21T11:41:00.000+11:00

.
It has recently come to my attention that one can accurately determine the political ideology of a person or group by cherry-picking certain actions and/or beliefs of said person/group and comparing them to another person/group of your own particular choosing.

By using this new form of revelatory research I have come to the wild conclusion and can prove beyond a doubt that the USA currently suffers in the grip of a repressive Maoist regime.

Exhibit #1.

a) Mao Zedong was the brains behind and leader of an agrarian based revolution in China.

b) George W. Bush likes to spend time on a farm.

Exhibit #2.

a) Dick Cheney likes to adjourn to the property of a friend and takes pleasure in small, specially reared birds falling in great numbers before his weapon.

b) Mao Zedong liked to adjourn to his bedroom and took pleasure in small, specially reared birds falling in great numbers before his weapon.

I rest my case.

The Golden Compass

2007-12-09T15:29:00.000+11:00

It seems that the god botherers have found something to do this Chrismas.

"Every single religious character is a terror in these books," said McCaffrey. "There isn't one who isn't. And the heroes of the book – the children – are taught that churches are all the same and that they obliterate good feelings."

Irony, thy name is 'Ecclesia Catholica Romana'.

Reaching for the Stars.

2007-11-18T11:09:00.000+11:00

Ta-ran-ta-ra!!!

There you have it. My blog reading level is genius and truthfully I'm not surprised, I've always felt that I soar in the mental stratosphere with the likes of Teh Editors, Atrios and Ken L. It's also nice to see the likes of Glenn Greenwald, Juan Cole and Jon Swift fluttering just below us at the college (post-grad) level. Lads, well done!!!

Also, a big "well done" to Michelle Malkin and Pammy Atlas who romped in at the high school level and to Glen Reynolds, Sweet Annie Althouse and Ace who surprised us all with an impressive junior high level.

h/t Roy.

Hoo rahhh

2007-11-07T07:51:00.000+11:00

You know what to do.........

A Little More Can't Hurt, Can It?

2007-09-17T14:28:00.000+10:00

SATELLITE images of the elusive North-West Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans have ignited a diplomatic battle between Canada and the US.

The discovery that the entire passage is now ice-free, for the first time since records began, has started a scramble for control of one of the world's most potentially lucrative shipping lanes.

Images released at the weekend by the European Space Agency reveal a dramatic increase in the melting of sea ice. US scientists said it suggested the whole of the Arctic could be ice-free by 2030, far sooner than previously predicted.

The steady melting of the north polar icesheet has already provoked international tensions over the possibility of gaining access to the vast reserves of oil and gas believed to lie beneath the seabed.......

........Russia, Norway, Denmark, Canada and the US are among countries in a race to secure rights to the Arctic that heated up last month when Russia sent two small submarines to plant its national flag under the North Pole. A US study suggests as much as 25 per cent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas could be in the area.

No Virginia, you can't make this shit up.

Baghdad Burning

2007-09-15T22:15:00.000+10:00

... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend...

Riverbend and her family got out. I hope they'll be ok.

Change

2007-09-14T14:33:00.000+10:00

Using electroencephalographs, which measure neuronal impulses, the researchers examined activity in a part of the brain -- the anterior cingulate cortex -- that is strongly linked with the self-regulatory process of conflict monitoring.

The match-up was unmistakable: respondents who had described themselves as liberals showed "significantly greater conflict-related neural activity" when the hypothetical situation called for an unscheduled break in routine.

Conservatives, however, were less flexible, refusing to deviate from old habits "despite signals that this ... should be changed."

Yep.

P.S. Happy Birthday Joel!!

World Clock

2007-09-07T14:56:00.000+10:00

Interesting

Sheedy and Hird: Genius and Magic

2007-08-31T18:08:00.000+10:00

I was 8 when Sheeds became coach so I don't remember a time without him there. It's gonna feel really weird having a new coach, hopefully one of Sheedy's protégés (Neale Daniher, Mark Harvey, Mark Thompson, Tim Watson and now Dean Bailey all are or were senior coaches). Whoever it may be has got some big shoes to fill, not only did he lead the Bombers with top-line results he also revolutionised the game to the benefit of every player, team and spectator.

As for Hirdy, the Bombers have had other captains and champions in my time but, by god, the man was a fucking magician and it's sad to see him go. Hirdy, just by being Hirdy, would probably make a great coach and it would be nice to see him stay in footy. Hey Hirdy, I hear the Bombers are looking for a fresh coach...........

Thanks fellas.

Friday Morning Memory Blogging

2007-08-31T11:56:00.000+10:00

1984 with a bullet. Here come The Takeaways....

Iraq WMD Cache Found!!!!!!!!!!

2007-08-31T10:00:00.000+10:00

At last, President Bush, a man of unsurpassed genius and inarguably the greatest American president since Hoover, is proved right..... huh, wha?? Oh.

UN finds deadly chemicals

The United Nations found potentially lethal vials of a chemical warfare agent, removed from Iraq a decade ago, in offices near its New York headquarters....

Meh... better call John Bolton.

Tom Tomorrow

2007-08-30T16:19:00.000+10:00

This Modern World: In 1969, a group of radicals hatched a secret plan...

Mimi stakes the high ground!!!

2007-08-30T11:46:00.000+10:00

Mimi Smartypants says:

WHY DO I EAVESDROP IT JUST MAKES ME MAD

Speaking of heinous bitchosity, I was ready to castrate and disembowel these two DePaul-hat-wearing Chads on the El, as they went into an EXTREME and MINUTELY DETAILED critique of various girls' appearances. Is she hot? She's pretty hot. Well, her body is hot, her face not so much. You're crazy, her face is totally hot. See, I used to think her face was hot, but one day I noticed that her lips are really thin and like one side is kind of higher than the other. Yeah, and did you see her last week when she had that huge zit? What about Other Girl? Oh shit dude, she's gotten so fat. She used to be hot but now she's a cow. She's got great tits though. Her hair is so busted, man, she needs to quit coloring it or something.
AND ON AND ON AND ON until I shoved the headphones into my ears and tried not to bite my own tongue in half. I hate to break it to you morons, but it is not our job to live up to your standards of fuckability. Unless there is some magic potion that will turn you back into human beings, I hope you and all the rest of your brotherhood fall into a vat of pig shit and drown. Although I don't think pig shit is kept in vats. Why would it be?

Mimi, there is nothing wrong with having a bitch & whinge about the foul vagaries of the opposite sex, but get off the high horse.... or, as JC would have put it "Thems without, cast first."

As for storing pig shit in vats - fertilizer.

Naughty TRex

2007-08-16T18:37:00.000+10:00

You can't do that.

Message from Rudy

2007-08-13T19:00:00.000+10:00

We look upon authority too often and focus over and over again, for 30 or 40 or 50 years, as if there is something wrong with authority. We see only the oppressive side of authority. Maybe it comes out of our history and our background. What we don't see is that freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.

Fuck me!!!!!!!!

Land of the Free, Home of the what?????

h/t Digby

A Gathering II: The Quickening

2007-08-13T15:16:00.000+10:00

The boys are back

h/t TBogg

Angus Laidlaw Beveridge

2007-08-07T19:02:00.000+10:00

August 25, 1976 - July 31, 2007.

The night too quickly passes

And we are growing old,

So let us fill our glasses

And toast the days of gold;

When finds of wondrous treasure

Set all the land ablaze,

And you and I were faithful mates

All through the roaring days!

***

Henry Lawson "The Roaring Days"

Catch ya later, Nipper.......

His shit Does stink!

2007-08-01T20:27:00.000+10:00

He may be a stuck-up old racist but in some small way Philip is a man after my own heart.

Hooray for Privatisation

2007-07-31T15:59:00.000+10:00

Frustrated commuters to ride free
Public transport users will be entitled to a free ride after train operator Connex revealed it had fallen short of performance targets for July.
Connex spokesman John Rees said the operator had fallen short of the 92 per cent target by about half a per cent.
This is the sixth time in seven months that Connex has missed the performance target for trains running on time.

2007-07-30T16:12:00.000+10:00

Howard rules out apologising to Haneef

See below...

Compassionate Conservatism...

2007-07-29T20:11:00.000+10:00

2007

A surgeon general's report in 2006 that called on Americans to help tackle global health problems has been kept from the public by a Bush political appointee without any background or expertise in medicine or public health, chiefly because the report did not promote the administration's policy accomplishments, according to current and former public health officials.....
Three people directly involved in its preparation said its publication was blocked by William R. Steiger, a specialist in education and a scholar of Latin American history whose family has long ties to President Bush and Vice President Death....

2004

Mr Steiger's letter questions the scientific basis for "the linking of fruit and vegetable consumption to decreased risk of obesity and diabetes." He adds: "There is an unsubstantiated focus on 'good' and 'bad' foods and a conclusion that specific foods are linked to non-communicable diseases and obesity... The assertion that heavy marketing of energy-dense foods or fast-food outlets increases the risk of obesity is supported by almost no data." The letter also criticises "the identification of adverse economic status, especially in women, as a causative factor in obesity," despite research that has consistently shown poor Americans are fatter than rich ones.

It's always great to see a scholar of Latin American history leading the way on public health crises. Has Bush ever made a bad choice? I think not...

Way to go, Brownie!!!

GUILTY!!!!!

2007-07-29T12:21:00.000+10:00

"Kevin Andrews should immediately reinstate his visa. He seems to be the only person in Australia who still thinks Dr Haneef is guilty of something."

He is guilty of something, he is guilty of having brown skin, being a muslim and having the audacity to embarrass Kevin Andrews and his boss by not being a terrorist thereby blunting their ability to win support through fearmongering.

Evil bastard, he's probably a homosexual commie abortionist as well.

2007-07-24T16:00:00.000+10:00

President Bush's polyps benign

Unfortunately the same can't be said about George himself.

Eaten by Singapore

2007-07-22T13:33:00.000+10:00

By Stephen Mayne

WHEN shareholders in Perth-based energy utility Alinta Ltd gather to vote on the $15 billion carve-up of the company on August 13, few of them will realise the remarkable historical event they will trigger.

In accepting $4.5 billion of cash from Singapore Power for a suite of Australian electricity and gas distribution assets, Alinta shareholders will lift the total value of Australian business assets controlled by the Singapore Government to almost $30 billion.

This will exceed the value of commercial assets owned by our own Federal Government, which is surely an unprecedented situation for any First World country. How can a foreign power own more of Australia than our own government?

While ordinary Singaporeans have limited democratic rights and still don't enjoy benefits such as Australia's minimum wage (the world's highest), the Singapore state has amassed an empire worth more than $200 billion — and it has now put more of it into Australia than any other country.

The investments come from two discreet vehicles. The $100 billion-plus Government Investment Corporation (GIC) invests Singapore's foreign reserves around the world while Temasek Holdings owns the shares in government-controlled businesses such as Singapore Airlines, Singapore Power, Singtel and the giant DBS Holdings financial conglomerate.

Few people realise how much these two vehicles have ploughed into Australia since 1995, buying many sensitive and prestigious assets such as Optus, Myer Melbourne and large parts of the old State Electricity Commission of Victoria.

This compares starkly with the Howard Government, which has raised about $65 billion from privatisation — the biggest chunks coming from selling 83 per cent of Telstra ($45 billion), 50.1 per cent of the Commonwealth Bank ($5.15 billion) and the nation's airports ($8.5 billion).
With Medibank Private also slated for sale next year, the Government is left with only Australia Post, which made a net profit of $370 million in 2005-06 and is therefore worth about $7 billion. The residual 17 per cent stake in Telstra is worth $10 billion but the Government doesn't control it.

While other nations such as China, Singapore, Russia, Korea, Kuwait and Norway build up huge sovereign funds, Australia, with its world-beating dowry of natural assets, still has a Federal Government with a negative net worth of $10 billion in the middle of an unprecedented commodities boom.

Even including the $52 billion in the Future Fund and all land and defence assets, these assets do not exceed the $50 billion in outstanding federal debt and $111 billion in unfunded superannuation liabilities as at June 30, 2007.

The contrast with Singapore is stark indeed. This island nation of just 4.4 million people in a land mass broadly equivalent to Melbourne has amassed vast public wealth, although its private wealth is nowhere near the $8130 billion that the federal Treasury and Australian Bureau of Statistics estimate Australia's 21 million citizens have accumulated.

So how did this happen? It all started when Singapore Airlines wanted to buy the cornerstone 25 per cent stake in Qantas offered by the Keating Government in 1993, but lost out to British Airways. It took the defeat very badly.

Its first major successful move came in 1995 when a Singapore government body, Capita Land, bought a controlling interest in Australand, the property developer that built the Commonwealth Games village. This stake is now worth $1.1 billion.

After staying out of the original $30 billion energy sector privatisation program in Victoria, Singapore Power, which is fully owned by the state, picked up the monopoly electricity transmission business Powernet for $2.1 billion in June 2000.

This was quickly followed by Singtel's $14 billion bid for Optus in 2001. Singtel is 56 per cent government-owned, so Optus is now more publicly owned than Telstra — albeit by a foreign power. I, for one, switched my mobile phone contract from Optus to Telstra as a small consumer protest when Australian drug trafficker Van Nguyen was executed by the immovable Singapore authorities in 2005.

The next big bite was Singapore Power's $5.1 billion acquisition of TXU's Australian energy portfolio in April 2004, although $2.2 billion of retail and generation assets were on-sold to China Light & Power in March 2005. Late in 2005, 49 per cent of the remaining Australian power assets were floated in a vehicle called SP Ausnet, raising $1.3 billion.

This reduced the total power sector investment to $3.8 billion, but now we have the huge Alinta deal in which Singapore Power is offering $4.5 billion in cash to become the monopoly gas distributor in NSW and the largest distributor of electricity in Victoria.

It will even own 50 per cent of ActewAGL — the company that keeps the lights on at Parliament House in Canberra.

Coinciding with the Alinta deal has been a recent splurge of property investments. Frank Lowy sold to GIC a 50 per cent stake in Westfield Parramatta, Australia's third-most valuable shopping centre, for $717 million in May.

An even more prestigious purchase last month was the Myer Melbourne complex, which is now one-third owned by GIC after it teamed up with the Myer family and the Commonwealth Bank to buy it for $600 million.

GIC already owns the Park Hyatt hotel in Melbourne, along with Sydney's Queen Victoria Building and the Strand Arcade, and there's been recent press speculation that it will buy into Westfield's Doncaster Shoppingtown to help fund a $400 million redevelopment.
But it doesn't stop there.

Even child-care behemoth ABC Learning, which receives $3 million a week from Australian taxpayers to look after 40,000 children and has former children's minister Larry Anthony on its board, this month issued 12 per cent of its shares to Temasek for $401 million.

In some countries, child care is provided by the state, yet our Government is now funding a company which has a foreign government as its largest shareholder to deliver this service. All this must make for interesting discussions when John Howard catches up with his Singaporean counterpart, Lee Hsien Loong, or his autocratic father, Lee Kuan Yew, who is still "GIC chairman minister mentor" at the ripe old age of 83.

Peter Costello was busily showing Lee Kuan Yew around Federal Parliament a few weeks ago and, given the 2003 Free Trade Agreement, it's fair to assume relations remain close.

The same can't be said for Singapore and Thailand. In January 2006, Temasek bought control of Shin Corp — the family company of Thailand's former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra — for $US1.9 billion ($A2.1 billion) in a deal that sparked widespread protests and a military coup.
The generals have since crippled Shin Corp's telecoms and satellite business to the point where Singapore has dropped well over $1.5 billion and relations between the two countries are severely strained.

Could Singapore's financial imperialism ever cause tensions here? The only time Singapore has faced any takeover resistance in Australia was in 2000 when Peter Costello blocked a proposed bid for Westpac by financial conglomerate DBS Holdings, which is 28 per cent owned by Temasek.

However, Singapore Airlines remains bitter about losing almost $500 million in the Ansett collapse and being denied access to the lucrative Pacific route, which might explain why it is now funding Tiger Airways' assault on the Australian domestic market in an attempt to damage Qantas.

Planes, child-care centres, shopping centres, department stores, satellites, hotels, power lines, gas pipelines and mobile phones: the Singapore Government owns all that and more in Australia yet this is barely mentioned in public debate.

Does anybody else out there feel a little uneasy about this phenomenon, especially given the secretive, autocratic and undemocratic tendencies of the Singapore Government?

Australian companies, let alone our Government, would never be allowed to buy equivalent assets in Singapore. And all this investment didn't even give us the leverage to save Van Nguyen from the gallows.

Stephen Mayne was founder of Crikey.com and Kennett government spin doctor responsible for privatisation from 1992-1994.

Fuck me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Proud to be Australian....

2007-07-22T06:32:00.000+10:00

There is growing sentiment that we should cut our losses and deport him (Haneef). No one is backing away from the fact that this guy is a security risk. We are standing by the decision to cancel his visa but there is simply not enough evidence to convict him of anything.

The lucky country...........

The Faces of Evil..... apparently.

2007-07-21T09:39:00.001+10:00

Look at that flesh that she's showing..... How can we trust people like that??????

Maori MP slams 'racist' Howard

2007-07-09T20:44:00.000+10:00

An MP for New Zealand Maori Party has labelled Australian Prime Minister John Howard a "racist bastard"......

Right on Bro....

2007-07-04T01:46:00.000+10:00

These go out to PiPi an FOARP.....

Here's to the athletes!!!

Commuter Scooter!

2007-07-03T12:15:00.000+10:00

To be expected.....

Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work — and life.

I don't believe my role [as governor] is to replace the verdict of a jury with my own, unless there are new facts or evidence of which a jury was unaware, or evidence that the trial was somehow unfair.

The Middle Kingdom

2007-07-01T00:35:00.000+10:00

This is magnificent....

Just Because...

2007-06-29T21:07:00.001+10:00

Bugger art! Why not study law?

2007-06-23T10:48:00.000+10:00

Hit Them Where it Hurts the Most

2007-06-13T09:08:00.000+10:00

GLAD-handing US President George W.Bush may have given adoring Albanians more than his affection when news footage and photographs showed him apparently having his watch stolen off his wrist in front of a throng of secret service agents.

Mr Bush was being mobbed by a euphoric crowd in the town of Fushe Krujein, near the capital Tirana when the handsome watch with a dark strap disappeared.

Heh...

First not-Jenna gets her bag stolen by some swarthy Argentinian, now the swarthy Albanians are at it, this is terrorism at it's most base.

I have no doubt that this is an al-Queda plot, all Argentinians and Albanians should be deported from the U.S. It's just not safe with them around. I just know they're all sitting around right now, munching on their morcilla and shendetlie, planning devious ways to steal fashion accessories and bring down America.

Gloating as Hitch Stumbles

2007-06-13T08:30:00.000+10:00

THERE is a huge trapdoor waiting to open under anyone who is critical of so-called popular culture or (to redefine this subject) anyone who is uneasy about the systematic, massified cretinisation of the major media.

If you denounce the excess coverage, you are yourself adding to the excess.

It's almost like Hitch is trying to re-re-invent himself. He was never worried about massified cretinisation during the run up to the Iraq war. If fact, at that point he seemed quite chuffed with the mass media, what with it giving support to his gin-soaked warmongering.

But, just when we start to believe that Hitch must have spent some time at Betty Ford and emerged sans florid cheeks and bellicose wankery, we get this:

....an even more acid piece of creepy populism, in the form of an order from Judge "Reggie" Walton, who poured his witless sarcasm on those who had filed a brief in support of Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Would such "luminaries," sneered Walton, be equally available for other litigants? It's not his job to arbitrate such a question, and he seems not to understand the law, but if his words mean anything, and from a federal judge at that, they appear to mean that to be a public figure is to risk double jeopardy in the courts.

Yep, Hitch is still pissed as a hummingbird whooped up on fermented nectar. He must be if he can't understand what the "sneering" Judge Walton was getting at.

Hitch, the point that Judge "Reggie" is making is that people of influence are not beyond the law no matter how much their supporters would like them to be. Because Hitch, if they were, the law would really and for true be an ass.

A Day in the Life.....

2007-06-10T13:32:00.000+10:00

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Paris Hilton has not eaten or slept since arriving at the medical ward of a Los Angeles jail and is being given psychoactive drugs, celebrity Web site TMZ.com reported on Saturday, citing law enforcement sources.

Sounds like business as usual for our Paris.

But Les Kennedy Must Live!!!

2007-05-25T10:59:00.000+10:00

said a man named Wallid

A local hairdresser, who said her name was Sheryne

Jeffrey Anbinder Must Die!!!!!!!

2007-05-25T10:52:00.000+10:00

Update: Not the Cornell Anbinder. Down here in Oz we don't know much about Cornell, although I've got a cousin who studied law there and there is a guy with the same name as myself who was in the step team(whatever that is).

Update II: Unless, of course, the Cornell Anbinder is also a prick. If so, then he must die as well.

Wolf Shown the Door. (Good riddance)

2007-05-19T16:51:00.000+10:00

Greg Sheridan says

PAUL Wolfowitz is a good man brought down by a shabby, politicised witch-hunt. The terms under which he was forced to deal with his partner when he joined the World Bank may well indicate that he was set up for a fall.

Wolfowitz tried hard to avoid personnel issues surrounding his partner. He sought advice, and followed it.

The spouses of other executives had been allowed to keep working at the bank but the hostility to Wolfowitz, which is a displaced enmity for US President George W.Bush, exacerbated by Wolfowitz's exotic name and reputation as an architect of the operation in Iraq, was present from day one.

First thing, Greg: she was his mistress not his spouse and he has successfully managed to fuck her over with his unethical shenanigans.

Second thing, Greg: Wolfies rep as an architect of the fuck up in Iraq shows him to be a far right warmonger and, given the very predictable results of his draughtsmanship, a fucking idiot.

Third thing, Greg: "exacerbated by Wolfowitz's exotic name" Wolfie hasn't been fucked over because he is a jew. He has been fucked over because the behavior which is typical of his type (i.e. right-wing, neo-con); nepotism and wing-nut welfare.

The title of Greg's hagiographic wank is "Dedicated servant of humanity" a more apt title would be "Dedicated servant of right-wing extremism and un-democratic political goals."

Fuck you, Greg Sheridan! Wolfowitz is not a good man and neither are you!!!

Terrible News

2007-05-11T12:10:00.000+10:00

Rare throat cancer linked to oral sex

A RARE cancer in the back of the throat is "strongly associated" with a virus transmitted during oral sex, US researchers believe.

This is not a good thing, hopefully a vaccine will be developed very soon. I'm willing to bet that even those cavemen in Texas won't block the free distribution to all females.

2007-04-30T21:04:00.000+10:00

2007-04-26T13:59:00.000+10:00

Still hampered by her injuries, Lynch walked slowly to the witness table. “The American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes and they don’t need to be told elaborate tales,” Lynch said.

The thing is that the Bush Administration needed to tell elaborate tales to keep the public on it's side. Once you start lying you gotta keep lying. Tangled webs an' all that Shakesperian stuff.

Sunday Arvo

2007-04-22T16:05:00.000+10:00

Blind what??

2007-04-17T01:29:00.000+10:00

Early Tuesday morning memory blogging.

Leunig

2007-04-15T01:05:00.000+10:00

Explosion rocks Iraqi parliament, 2 dead

2007-04-12T22:39:00.000+10:00

BAGHDAD - A bomb rocked Iraqs parliament building in the heavily fortified Green Zone Thursday, killing at least two lawmakers in a stunning security breach in the third month of a U.S.-Iraqi crackdown on violence in the capital, officials said.

No mention of the peaceful marketplaces and all the schools that were painted today. Goddam librul media!!

Vale Kurt Vonnegut jr.

2007-04-12T20:58:00.000+10:00

But I had a good uncle, my late Uncle Alex. He was my father's kid brother, a childless graduate of Harvard who was an honest life-insurance salesman in Indianapolis. He was well-read and wise. And his principal complaint about other human beings was that they so seldom noticed it when they were happy. So when we were drinking lemonade under an apple tree in the summer, say, and talking lazily about this and that, almost buzzing like honeybees, Uncle Alex would suddenly interrupt the agreeable blather to exclaim, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."

November 11, 1922 - April 11, 2007.

I don't know why but I've always felt that there was something of the Pooh bear about Kurt.

They walked on, thinking of This and That, and by-and-by they came to an enchanted place on the very top ofthe Forest called Galleons Lap, which is sixty-something trees in a circle; and Christopher Robin knew that it was enchanted because nobody had ever been able to count whether it was sixty-three or sixty-four, not even when he tied a piece of string round each tree after he had counted it. Being enchanted, its floor was not like the floor the Forest, gorse and bracken and heather, but close-set grass, quiet and smooth and green. It was the only place in the Forest where you couldsit down carelessly, without getting up again almost at once and looking for some where else. Sitting there they could see the whole world spread out until it reached the sky, and whatever there was all the world over was with them in Galleons Lap.

Falling Joys, Lock It.

2007-04-12T20:22:00.000+10:00

Thursday night memory blogging.

Fuck you Mr. Jones...... heh.

Century

2007-04-12T19:17:00.000+10:00

The Fun's in the Fight.

So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.

Painters and Dockers

2007-04-04T20:28:00.000+10:00

The mighty Painters and Dockers!!!!

These guys were the first live band I ever saw by myself (i.e. Without Mum and Dad or other elders) it was early 1989. I sang "Dirty Ol' Town" on stage with them three years running (Bendigo Uni 'O' week 91, 92, 93). The third time, after the song finished, I got thrown head first off the stage by a bouncer...... Ouch.

The More Things Change........

2007-04-04T20:15:00.001+10:00

You may leave here for 4(0 years) days in space,
But when you return, it’s the same old place

I was just listening to this old lefty classic and realized that the only thing that has truly improved since 1965 is technology.

Does this make us more civilized?

How Quickly We Forget.

2007-03-27T08:03:00.000+10:00

House costs segregate rich, poor
THE gulf between Melbourne's rich and poor is becoming more territorial as the lack of affordable housing forces people on low to average incomes to live in the city's outer suburbs...
...And the lack of affordable housing has caused greater segregation between Melbourne's wealthy and poorer residents, according to the report's co-author, RMIT's Professor Gavin Wood.

I'm sure that the "Rich" don't have a problem with this at all.

Advance Australia Fair?

2007-03-26T16:35:00.001+10:00

Australian officials will speak to the Sri Lankans and decide whether they satisfy the test for refugee status contained in the Refugees Convention. From that decision there is no avenue for appeal; no right of judicial review; no means of correcting errors of bias, or stupidity, or corruption. The officials who go from Canberra to Nauru to ‘process’ the Sri Lankans will not be operating under Australian law, or under Nauruan law, or under any other law. Although paid by Australian taxpayers, they will apparently not be subject to the constraints of any laws.

If the Sri Lankans are determined to be refugees, which looks likely, they will not be offered protection by Australia. Instead, we will hawk them around the world to see if another country will take them.

Way back in 2002 I had a German mate who backpacked through Iran. At each place he stopped he asked the locals what they thought about various countries:

About Europe and Germany he got different answers at different places but the median seemed to be "They're Ok as they tend to stay out of our business."

About the U.S. the general answer was "There are many things we like about America, but, by Allah, they are nosey pricks and they seem to think that we all want to be American. We don't!"

About Australia the answer was always "Ahh... A beautiful country of friendly beer drinkers. I would like to see a kangaroo." It wasn't that long ago that so much of the world felt this way about Oz....... I wonder how they feel now?

A Gathering of Eagles

2007-03-21T21:13:00.000+11:00

The American patriots/Hardcore-Spartanesque-Banes-of-Terrorists-and-their-Librul-Allies from the mighty Gathering of Eagles enjoy a well earned libation after their succesful defence of the Vietnam Memorial from evil americans who don't want there to be a need to build any more memorials to the noble dead of less than noble wars.

UPDATE: Deep insider "Betty" reports that the Parks and the Washington Metro constabularies added their strength to the Gathering of Eagles and their cause.

The adversaries were across Henry Bacon Drive aiming their blaring loudspeakers our way, playing inappropriate rock, latin and hiphop music over our Memorials and I’m sure it was wafting across the Potomac to Arlington National Cemetery.

We were also supplemented by the Park Police and the Washington Metro Police.

The Gathering of Eagles were posted on a very windy knoll at the East End of the Wall, where they had surrounded themselves with hundreds of American flags flying briskly in the breeze. No loud music, no complaining about the environment. Just there to defend the Wall.

Still no comment from the police on this but I'm sure they'll soon be trumpeting their involvment.

I do hafta say that I was surprised to learn that dead soldiers don't like music.

2007-03-21T09:18:00.000+11:00

Krazy Khalid Kills Kittens (and Infidels).

2007-03-17T12:15:00.000+11:00

Now I'm really afraid.

"Clearly he is responsible for some of the attacks. But I believe he is taking credit for things he did not have direct involvement in," said one recently retired senior FBI counterterrorism official.

"In my opinion, it's excellent," the former official said of Mohammed's occasionally rambling statement. "It proves the point that these people are not stable or predictable, but that they are lethal."

You fuckin' what? Excellent???????

It's excellent that these people are not stable or predictable, but lethal???

This stupid, fucking stupid, comment is made by a retired senior FBI counterterrorism official.

We're all gonna die!!!!!

Guantanamo Unbound!

2007-03-15T12:34:00.000+11:00

Karen Greenberg takes a look at the inside and gets sold the "good oil".

1. Guantanamo is not a prison. The official term is "detention facility". Although the two most recently built complexes, Camps Five and Six, were modelled on prisons in Indiana and Michigan, it is not acceptable to use the word "prison" at Gitmo.

Got that?

2. Guantanamo has no prisoners, only "enemies". As in "unlawful enemy combatants" or "detained enemy combatants".

Get that one as well?

3. Once an enemy combatant, always an enemy combatant. "Today, it is not about guilt or innocence. It's about unlawful enemy combatants," Rear Admiral Harry Harris, the commanding officer of Guantanamo, told us. "And they are all unlawful enemy combatants." This despite the fact that the Government also has a category for those deemed "no longer an enemy combatant", which was not mentioned. Nor was the possibility of mistaken detention.

Gee, why should it really matter? Hmmm...?

4. No trustworthy lawyers come to Guantanamo. The handlers used the term "habeas lawyers" as a seemingly derogatory catch-all for those who are defending detainees. It was clear that at Gitmo, detainees are believed to be using lawyers in accordance with directives in an al-Qaeda training manual that was discovered in Manchester in 2000: "Take advantage of visits with habeas lawyers to communicate and exchange information with those outside."

I wonder what the founding fathers would think of these damnable "Habeas lawyers"?

5. Reporters misrepresent Guantanamo. The media arrive with ostensibly open
eyes,yet graciously hosted from morning to night, they go home perversely refusing to be complimentary to their hosts. They suffer from "the chameleon effect", as I was told more than once, taking on the colours of betrayers, and "we just don't understand it".

Bastards never mention the tasty lemon chicken in their articles!!!

6. The detainees still possess valuable information. Harris explained: "We have up-and-coming leadership in al-Qaeda and in the Taliban in Afghanistan, (and) we don't know what they look like … But their contemporaries … are quite often the same individuals that are in the camps here today … Sketch artists will work with these detainees … and those pictures will be sent out to the forward fighting area." But how reliable would anyone's memory be after five years of isolated detention?

They should open a gallery to help pay for all the korans and that delicious lemon chicken.

7. Abandon individuality, on either side of the wire. The prisoners were referred to by number.

Easier than remembering difficult raghead names like "David" or "Mohammed".

8. Hard facts are scarce. "You'll notice that we speak vaguely. We can't be specific. You will notice that we talk in approximate terms and estimates only. Those are operational security measures."

Remember, please, that these are the most dangerous people in the world, we can't be specific or their evil brethren could get information to them by carrier gull.

9. Guantanamo houses no contradictions. Islam is treated with respect. The prisoners' food is halal. Every prisoner, even the non-compliant, has a Koran if he wants it. But if you ask about other basic rights, such as the presumption of innocence, a sergeant without a name will chastise you about the dangers posed by enemy combatants.

They got their Korans what more do these damn musselmen want? Huh...? What? They want freedom you say? How could they want freedom when they ain't christians? Gotcha there, don't I? Goddam bleeding heart islamolibrul!!!

Tamsyn Again!

2007-03-11T19:11:00.000+11:00

Two more Australian Titles (400m & 800m). Well done sugarbean.........

UPDATE: First time in 26yrs that both titles were taken by the same person.

Congrat's Matt Sanchez

2007-03-09T13:17:00.000+11:00

Congrat's on winning the Jeanne Kirpatrick Academic Freedom Award.

But wait, there's more!!!!! Matt has used a couple of other pseudonyms in the past.

Biography for Rod Majors

Mini biography

Born Pierre LaBranche, this hunky French-Canadian started his movie career in hard-core porn videos for Kristen Bjorn and the late William Duffault back in 1993. The following year he moved to San Francisco, changed his name to the more American-sounding 'Rod Majors', and worked successfully in several gay and bi videos for Catalina and Falcon. His most memorable titles are 'Idol Country' (1994) and 'Built Tough' (1995). Very sexy looking, dark skinned, fluent in several languages and extremely well endowed, Rod was often marketed as an 'exotic' sex performer. He took a break from the porn industry at the peak of his career and has subsequently lived in England and Germany.IMDb mini-biography by: tigon

It seems that Matt is quite the artiste.

The Mature, Serious Right-Wing

2007-03-06T17:37:00.000+11:00

Sweet little Annie Coulter, famous for her adams apple, claims that calling presidential candidate John Edwards a faggot , while speaking at the very serious and mature CPAConference, was just a "Schoolyard Taunt". Hmmmm........?

Reminds me of the time Bill Clinton called Newt Gingrich a poo-head.

I don't consider myself an overly mature person, but I do wonder about the "serious" right-wing which gives Coulter, and people like her, so much air time and support.

Meh... The righties wont give a shit, they are very well aware that only liberal lefties are unserious and immature. Their evidence is that liberal lefties are liberal lefties, of course. What more do you need?

2007-02-19T09:19:00.000+11:00

Pot no longer hot

ONE in three young people find cannabis use unacceptable, according to research suggesting the drug is now seen as addictive and linked to health and social problems.
A new survey by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre found marijuana use has become socially unfashionable, with three-quarters of the 1500 adults surveyed believing it is dangerous or very dangerous.

But suckin' down 4-5 pills on a weekend? Well that's just ticky-boo!

Sorry kids but Uncle J says "Killing your brain quick with chems is way less cool than a slow, sllloooow burnout with weed, man."

恭喜发财!

2007-02-19T09:12:00.000+11:00

Happy Chinese New Year and welcome to the year of the Pig.

FUCK!!!!!!!

2007-02-10T22:21:00.000+11:00

Just browsed past Working for Change and started looking for a new article from Molly Ivins.....

FUCK!!!!

Telegraph insults Obama's Wife!

2007-02-10T10:28:00.000+11:00

Obama's Wife His Secret Weapon

HER admirers believe she combines the poise of Jackie Kennedy with the brain of Hillary Clinton and the uncomplicated charm of Laura Bush. Many Democrats believe she will be a powerful asset to her husband's presidential campaign.

The uncompilcated charm of Laura Bush????

Where I come from uncomplicated charm means "Sweet Girl, but none too bright." or as my father would put it "She may be nice but she's as dumb as dog-shit."

I would hope that Sen. Obama takes great umbrance at this insult.

UPDATE: I'm also pretty sure that Michelle Obama, educated at Princeton and Harvard Law School, wont be making jokes about her huband masturbating horses.

It's Funny 'Cos it's True!

2007-02-08T17:53:00.000+11:00

A police officer pulled over a driver who'd been weaving in and out of the lanes. He approached the car window and said, 'Sir, I need you to blow into this breathalyser tube? The man immediately reached into his pocket and produced a doctor's note. On it was written: 'This man suffers from terrible asthma.Please don?t make him perform any action that'll leave him short of breath. The officer said, 'OK then, I need you to come and give a bloodsample.' Straightaway, the man produced another letter. This one read: 'This man is a haemophiliac. Please do not cause him to bleed in any way.' So the police officer said, 'Right, I need a urine sample then.' The man produced a third letter from his pocket. It read, "This man plays for the English Cricket Team. Please don't take the piss out of him.'

Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out.

2007-02-03T11:36:00.000+11:00

Guantanamo Display Meant to 'Stimulate' Inmates.

THE photos and articles depicting Saddam Hussein's execution shown to inmates at Guantanamo Bay, including David Hicks, were provided for their "intellectual stimulation", the US military has said.

Uh, right....

Obviously because it's "intellectual stimulation" it must be good, kinda like the intellectual stimulation you get from one of Shakespeare's plays or the thrill a budding young mathematician sees in the wonders of geometry or even possibly like the stimulation a woman finds in the keen edge of the blade that a rapist is holding to her throat.

Vale Molly Ivins.

2007-02-01T16:51:00.000+11:00

Molly Ivins, that wonderfully prickly Texas rose, died today and Texas, the United States and the world are lessened by the loss.

Google her, read her words, chuckle at her acerbic wit. Here are three quotes that I like, but do some searching 'cos there are so many, many more.

The United States of America is still run by its citizens. The government works for us. Rank imperialism and warmongering are not American traditions or values. We do not need to dominate the world. We want and need to work with other nations. We want to find solutions other than killing people. Not in our name, not with our money, not with our children's blood.

I know vegetarians don't like to hear this, but God made an awful lot of land that's good for nothing but grazing.

During a recent panel on the numerous failures of American journalism, I proposed that almost all stories about government should begin: "Look out! They're about to smack you around again!"

Don't worry Molly, we'll hold onto the rage.

Definition of a Conservative.

2007-01-31T13:01:00.000+11:00

Recently, whilst brushing up on my geology, I found this definition:

Conservative - A contaminant that moves with the same velocity as water.

"A contaminant" OK, I agree with that. A conservative is a contaminant. "...moves with the same velocity as water." Hmmm..? I've seen water move pretty fast, I'm not so sure about conserv....... Wait, of course, Bill Clinton! Conservatives are always fast to blame their fuck-ups on Bill (and now on George W., because even though they enabled and supported him in all his fuck-ups, now that his numbers are down he is, apparently, no longer a conservative and therefore can be held up to scrutiny and critique). Oh yeah, they are also pretty quick when they try to destroy social safety nets and to lower taxes for the wealthy and big business, lining the pockets of family and friends, and their own pockets, as a result. (Hey, there ain't nothin' wrong with a little taste is there?! Is there??!?).

Yes, I agree with that definition.

David Hicks Luxury

2007-01-31T10:20:00.000+11:00

The US prosecutor preparing the case against Australian terrorism suspect David Hicks said he expected the Australian to be charged by the end of the week.
Colonel Mo Davis also denied that Hicks was being held in harsh conditions and rejected claims the Australian was shackled to the floor of his cell in conditions that resembled a Nazi concentration camp.
"I just wanted to make sure that that was bogus, so I called to check on his condition and I'm told everything's fine," he told ABC Radio.

Well that seals it for me, the prosecutor called and they said "Fine man, no problemo.!."

I can just see that bastard Hicks swanning around the crescent shaped pool, sipping upon rare tisanes from the far east and enjoying surf and turf every night as he watches the Simpsons.

Hell, look at the pic, it's like my last holiday in Bangkok. How could anyone possibly think otherwise?

Meh.............

George W Bush, Cocaine, Abortion and Sodomy.

2007-01-25T00:01:00.000+11:00

You know the Bible 92%!

Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses - you know it all! You are fantastic!

Ultimate Bible Quiz
Create MySpace Quizzes

Just did this quiz and as you can see I got 92%, the funny thing is that the last question was "Do you read the bible?" My answer was no, but still the stupid thing congratulates me on reading the silly book. Oh well, you know these christians, they are quite happy to ignore the answers that are in front of them and make up their own reality.

Yes!! It's the Jonnys'

2007-01-18T23:49:00.000+11:00

The Mechanical Contrivium is Back!!!

2007-01-18T23:25:00.000+11:00

The Mechanical Contrivium

Now that Saddam is dead let's see what the Contrivium has to say about him.

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Saddam hussein!

US gold coins used to say 'In saddam hussein we trust'.
Saddam hussein can't drink - he absorbs water from his surroundings by osmosis.
The international dialling code for saddam hussein is 672!
In Chinese, the sound 'saddam hussein' means 'bite the wax tadpole'!
Neil Armstrong first stepped on saddam hussein with his left foot.
If you lick saddam hussein ten times, you will consume one calorie.
It is bad luck to walk under saddam hussein!
Saddam hussein cannot burp - there is no gravity to separate liquid from gas in his stomach.
Scientists have discovered that saddam hussein can smell the presence of autism in children!
Donald Duck's middle name is saddam hussein!

Look out Barak Obama...!..., Donald Duck is after your notoriety.

The Preznits Speech.

2007-01-12T14:14:00.001+11:00

President George W. Bush lets the American people know what he thinks of their feelings about the war.

Haditha Shows Civvie Deaths Par for the Course. No Care = No Foul.

2007-01-07T15:14:00.000+11:00

Marine officers said Chessani, the Marines' battalion commander, informed his superior, the regimental commander, of the civilian casualties the day they occurred and was told by that officer, Col. Stephen W. Davis, that no investigation was needed.

"There was nothing out of the ordinary about any of this, including the number of civilian dead, that would have triggered anything in my mind that was out of the norm," Davis told military investigators, according to a transcript. "There is nothing about this incident that jumped out at any point to us."

WTF? Civilian deaths at U.S. hands is the norm!!??

Glenn Reynolds on Republican Presidents.

2007-01-06T12:48:00.000+11:00

"It's as if the only good Republican President is a dead Republican President."

You said it Glenn!!!

Heh, indeed!

Most Outrageous Right Wing Comments of 2006

2006-12-28T23:59:00.000+11:00

The wankery of the right. There's a whole raft of jerks in this article that need a good bitch slappin'.

E.g.

CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck to Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, D-Minn.: "OK. No offense, and I know Muslims. I like Muslims. … With that being said, you are a Democrat. You are saying, 'Let's cut and run.' And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.' " [11/14/06]

George the Bibliophile

2006-12-28T23:21:00.000+11:00

George Bush, long noted as an avid reader (hey, his wife is a librarian), has recently finished reading King Leopold's Ghost (We haved to take his word for this but what reason would the President of the United States have to lie?).

Author of said book, Adam Hochschild, has a few questions to put to the Prez.

First, the long effort by King Leopold II of Belgium to bring the Congo under his control was driven by his avid quest for a commodity central to industry and transportation: rubber. Does that remind you of anything? Oil, perhaps?
What's more, the king justified his grab for the Congo's natural resources with much talk about bringing philanthropy and Christianity to darkest Africa. Now what did that remind you of? Democracy to Iraq?
Leopold cleared at least $US1.1 billion ($A1.4 billion) in today's dollars during the 23 years he controlled the Congo, and his business friends made additional huge sums. Much of the money flowed into companies with special royal concession rights to exploit the rain forest.
Final question, for extra credit: Do those companies remind you of anything? If you mentioned Halliburton or DynCorp, you're right again.

Go ahead, read the whole thing.

Say, Homer, do you like nachos?

2006-12-28T23:05:00.000+11:00

“Jerry Ford is so dumb that he can't fart and chew gum at the same time.”
Lyndon B. Johnson

US President George Bush and his top advisers made a "big mistake" in their justification for invading Iraq, Gerald Ford told journalist Bob Woodward in an interview embargoed until after the former president's death......

......"I don't think, if I had been president, on the basis of the facts as I saw them publicly, I don't think I would have ordered the Iraq war," Ford said......

......Ford "very strongly" disagreed with the justification for the 2003
invasion of Iraq advocated and carried out by key Bush advisers and veterans of his own administration - Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld......

......"Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in
justifying going into the war in Iraq......"

Hmmmm...? Mebbe Jerry weren't so dumb after all.

Jerry's Dead!

2006-12-28T22:30:00.000+11:00

Jerry Ford is dead. He was, by most accounts, a nice guy but even nice guys can make fucked-up choices. This pic shows Jerry hard at work with two guys who, unfortunately for Jerry, will be remembered as part of his legacy.

Can you recognize these chaps? Click the link and see if you guessed right.

The resolute face of the Right.

2006-12-15T11:52:00.000+11:00

2006-12-05T10:47:00.000+11:00

Your 'Do You Want the Terrorists to Win' Score: 98%

You are a terrorist-loving, Bush-bashing, "blame America first"-crowd traitor. You are in league with evil-doers who hate our freedoms. By all counts you are a liberal, and as such cleary desire the terrorists to succeed and impose their harsh theocratic restrictions on us all. You are fit to be hung for treason! Luckily George Bush is tapping your internet connection and is now aware of your thought-crime. Have a nice day.... in Guantanamo!

Do You Want the Terrorists to Win?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

I'm disappointed I only got 98%

What Evah Happened to Gert Jonnys?

2006-12-02T23:52:00.000+11:00

2006-11-29T22:52:00.000+11:00

In the words of our lord and savior Jesus Christ "Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke!"

Leunig

2006-11-29T11:46:00.000+11:00

2006-11-29T11:39:00.000+11:00

Excelsior!!!!

Why I read the newspaper.

2006-11-29T11:28:00.000+11:00

God bless 'em. I love articles like this.

Did Borat split Pam from Kid?
Jano Gibson
November 29, 2006 - 8:26AM

Is Borat to blame for the ex-Baywatch star Pamela Anderson's split from hubby-of-four-months Kid Rock?.....
....."Bob started screaming at Pam, saying she had humiliated herself and telling her, 'You're nothing but a whore! You're a slut! How could you do that movie?' - in front of everyone. It was very embarrassing.

Values added Liberally

2006-11-06T14:32:00.000+11:00

Phil is refreshingly shrill

Once upon a time Australia was a terra that was wonderfully nullius. Nobody owned it and nobody lived there apart from a few Aborigines who, as well as having the misfortune to be black, hadn’t bothered to invent writing, the wheel or the Liberal Party. Nor did they speak English or share our wonderful Australian values. So if they were to arrive here now, in their funny canoes, we couldn’t let them in, could we?

Damn straight!!

Rove's October Surprise

2006-11-01T13:18:00.000+11:00

I have worked out what Karl Rove's October surprise will be and I believe it involves this.

The madrassa attack which killed 80 young punks and, supposedly, some al'Queda hotshots was orchestrated by the US just before the election.

"Wha???" I hear you cry "That's not much of an October surprise!"

True, but I'm thinkin' that Karl's October surprise is not really an October surprise, it is more of a Feb., March or maybe April Surprise.

"What the fuck is he talking about?" you mutter under your breath.

I'll explain. It looks as if the Democratic Party is going to take either the House or the Senate or both in the election and this sucks for Karl & Co. so something big and bad is needed to place at the feet of the Dems. The Dems supposed (according to right-wing-nuts) big weakness is national security and an attack in the months after they take office will be a big glittery invitation to a turkey shoot for the Repubs (actually it will be more like the hunting scenes from "Danny the Champion of teh World" where Danny (Rove) feeds the pheasants (Dems) with sleeping pill laced raisins and goes around picking up the drugged pheasants (Dems) from the floor of the forest to be taken home, cooked, eaten and crapped out).

A US predator drone knocking-off 80 madrassa students (al'Queda or not) will piss off the crazies big time and I reckon that Karl and Co. are hoping that this will encourage them to have another crack at Yankee soil and create an opening for the wing-nuts to blame everything on the feckless Dems and possibly Michael Moore (cos he's fat).